This invention relates to telecommunications network interfaces.
One of the requirements imposed on telephone companies in recent years is that some division be made between the network owned by the telephone company and the equipment owned by the individual customers. Since the customer usually owns the wires and equipment on his or her side of this network demarcation, it is important to be able to determine whether a problem in telephone service exists in the telephone company network or in the customer's wires or equipment.
In the case of buildings with several units, such as office buildings or apartments, this need is satisfied by a network interface unit which includes an array of bridges, or terminal pairs, coupled to each customer's equipment in the building. Each terminal pair is coupled to the network through a standard RJ11 jack plug so that a customer can disconnect his premises equipment and plug a working phone directly into the network for testing purposes. If service continues to be impaired, the customer knows the problem is in the network. (For an example of a network interface interconnection device, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,433 issued to Daoud.)
A maintenance termination unit (MTU) also allows the phone company to determine where a service problem lies. The MTU permits the central office to electronically disconnect the customer equipment by transmitting a particular voltage signal and then determine if any communications problems are in the network or the customer equipment (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,529,847 issued to DeBalko).
It is economically desirable to provide MTUs in the same network interface unit which includes the customer bridges and RJ11 jack plugs. Typically each MTU is formed on a printed circuit board with four wires extending therefrom which must be spliced onto the wires of the network side of the interface unit. Finding the right pair of wires, and then cutting and splicing the wires for each MTU are time-consuming and awkward when the MTUs are originally installed or have to be replaced.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide a network interface unit which includes MTUs and permits ease of connection of each MTU to a corresponding customer.